natalie | orange county portrait photographer

i'm finally back from my inadvertent blogging break and this time i actually brought pictures! it's a miracle, right? well this is going to show you just how behind i really am... these pictures were taken when natalie (my amazing s-i-l) came to visit us. back in august. yikes!

we had such a blast with natalie here. she is a photographer too, and it was so much fun to go out shooting with her! needless to say, there was a lot of this going on:



and this...



i love this picture for the sun flare and natalie's determination to get that perfect shot! which you can see on her blog:

http://capturinglyricsandlife.blogspot.com/2010/08/california-day-2.html

we also had fun sightseeing! we went down to san diego, where i forced natalie to model for me...



isnt' she gorgeous?



she could definitely pursue a job as a mascara model.

the next day, i took natalie on a southern california beach tour!

first stop: laguna beach





best. gelato. ever.



i like lifegaurds.

what? they save lives.

second stop: newport beach





last stop: huntington beach









i have fond memories of sitting at the beach with natalie snapping shot after shot, trying to figure out how to get those "twinkle" lights. so much fun!

the next day we went to disneyland! i left my camera at home, but you can check out natalie's awesome pictures here:

http://capturinglyricsandlife.blogspot.com/2010/08/california-day-5.html

thanks for coming to see us natalie! come back soon!

provo | orange county portrait photographer

our last day in utah was spent in provo visiting jeremy's fam. we had a great time catching up with them! and i had an especially good time with my beautiful s-i-l natalie. she just got a digital slr for christmas so we went out shooting together. she is a great photographer! (she took my awesome new profile picture! you can check out the other pictures she took of me on her blog. i love 'em!)













that evening, natalie was nice enough to drive us up the canyon so we could take pictures of the sunset. thanks natalie! i had such a great time!

still objects | orange county nature photographer

one of the tips i got from lori, was to practice on still objects. so one afternoon, i went out shooting and before i knew it, my time was up. time flies when you're having fun!

here are my favorite shots:

practice makes perfect | orange county photographer

when i first got my camera, i started by reading the manual cover to cover and taking pictures around the house. that got boring real quick. so i asked my friend lori (who takes great pictures) if she'd like to go out and practice. this turned out to be a great help. she gave me so many great tips, and then i got to practice them on her adorable little boy. thanks so much lori!

here are my favorites from that morning: